worst generation

there's some kind of shared cultural thing of people just throwing the yellow pages directly into the trash as soon as they get it, because hardly anyone uses it anymore, but that's really like 'i know, amirite' hack stand-up material more than 'where were you when twin towers fell'

n terms of policies and priorities, the group appears more right of center than imagined. Almost four in 10 believe cutting taxes is key to growth. Just 19 percent think government spending is the answer. And those who believe health insurance is a right dropped from 61 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2012.

The top-10 issues ranked in importance for this cohort were creating jobs, reducing the deficit, lowering the tax burden for all, becoming energy-independent, ensuring affordable access to health care, creating a world-class education system, addressing Social Security, preventing the spread of terrorism, protecting individual liberties from government, and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Combating the impacts of climate change fell near the bottom of the list.

A lot of the 21-24-year-olds in my grad program asked if their parents could come to our poster presentation today. Getting drinks after class. Hold on, gotta text mom to let her know where I'm at! I mean I love my mom and all but sheesh.

i actually think this is maybe a good topic for its own thread. it's certainly something i've thought a lot about. in some ways i'm a normative gen y'er in that regard. i've always talked to my parents once a day (at one point in high school that went down to once a week, but even that is frequent by some other generational standards). these days i actually see my parents every day bc i work in my father's company. we have dinner w/ them twice a week and see them at communal religious events etc. at the same time, i went away to boarding school at 14 and haven't lived in my parent's house (except for 6 months between yeshiva and college) since. i think some of this is cultural/ethnic/religious baggage, but some of it is probably generational baggage too. after all my parents are quintessential boomers and very hands on (and really would be so much more involved in the intricate details of my life if I didn't set hard limits). still, it's very nice to have strong family bonds and i talk to my siblings (2 brothers + sister) every day too, I also work with one of my three first cousins and my grandmother, and these aren't relationships that are interfering with other social attachments either. so idk how to adequately unpack this, or even if i could. obviously it's unique in terms of modern family constructs, but not historically unique in the least.

the helicopter parent thing is so exaggerated though. i know it's the #1 thing teachers love to complain about, but they would all probably admit that these parents are rare. when you have one or two parents out of 120+ calling you every other day, they're the ones that are gonna stick out.

I was born in 1979 and I was the guy who screamed at my dad every time he called freshman year until he stopped calling me. I never moved back home other than a single summer. My brother, born 1984, still lives at home. I'm sure this in part reflects economic circumstances -- find a job that pays the rent is a dicier proposition starting out now. If it's generational in any other way, I'm not sure what the mechanism is, but it does seem curious.

Yeah man for real I wld much rather have a student w/a helicopter parent than the mom I tried to call the other day whose voicemail message said, "If you're trying to get hold of me, I don't give a fuck." ;_;

I talk to my Mum at least once a week via email and maybe every 2 weeks/or at least once a month via skype...but that's more bcs of being away. But if I leaved nearby I'm sure I would spend a lot of time with them. Hell my sister is only a few years younger and she probably drops in on Mum & dad every day.

And it's not so much that they expect it, or ask us to do that. It's more that they *allow* it? or they've set up a pretty open, friendly kind of dynamic where it's not an obligation, it's just something we all want to do. We like being home, it's nice to sit down and have a cup of tea or dinner with them.

and at least with my own parents we can go a while without much contact and it's still cool. it's pretty nice.

but maybe that's not quite what that article is talking about, so maybe this is tl:dr haha

My inlaws are a little more needy, and definitely ask Mr Veg to come over for dinner pretty much every Sunday. But it's still a very pleasant thing, it doesn't seem that unhealthy to me.

My experience kind of relates to Hurting's -- I stayed at my parents' place over some college summers to (presumably) save cash, though, and relied on them in a tough situation a couple times since. But when I wasn't directly in their home, I probably talked to my parents once or twice a week for most of my 20s. When I was in college, it was even less often -- I think I'd go a couple weeks between phone calls, sometimes.

The situation and dynamic is a lot different, but my sister (born 1984) and mom are like best friends and talk multiple times daily. They were both going through some mediocre times when my sister was in her late teens and kind of bonded and have been close since.

I think it has a lot more to do with our different personalities and situations, but it's interesting that I was born in '81 and my sister in '84 and that's around the time of part of the millenial split according to some.

Before he moved to Maryland, my brother saw my parents (socially, I see my dad daily since we work together) way more than I do. I have nothing against them, but I don't feel a need to share my private life or go out of my way to eat dinner at 5:15, etc.. (brother born in '75, me '81)

I live about three miles from my parents. We speak about twice a week and it's been a habit since my niece was born (Mom babysits her) to stop by after work for at least an hour to hang out with Mom and her before sis picks her up. I'll usually stay long enough for a drink.

My parents aren't my bros but we enjoy each other's company -- more so the older I've gotten and our time together turns into the center of an hourglass. It isn't at all unusual for my friends' parents to know each other either.

voted boomers, but then i went thrift store record shopping and felt the overwhelming urge to stick it to the greatest generation for filling the bins with terrible MOR soundtrack and ''sing along with mitch/guy/erma/andy/jim'' LPs, this is a staggering burden and we will never be truly rid of it all. on the other hand i also flipped through the trivial pursuit ''boomer edition'' and felt better. silent generation looking pretty good in all this, i think.

dad is a war baby and mom was one of the good boomers, fuck everybody before and after them basically although i am all right by my fellow explorers and the earlier explorers part two have rarely let me down

also DJP,

^^^ pretty sure this was one of the first comics available on the futuristic millenial INTERNET, as enormous high-res GIFs of the first few pages, at least i remember my dad being really pleased that he'd downloaded it for me, although it even further muddied the waters of who or what could be considered "generation x"

My theory of boomer resentment is that the children of boomers hate the boomers because the boomers raised them with expectations of a boomer life -- just do what you love and somehow magically make a great living doing it. It's the crushing disappointment that led to the bitterness.